Expand your Promoted Tweet reach with Twitter's new @handle generator

by Edward Davidson

They say, judge someone by the company they keep, but in the case of Twitter advertising it’s more the people they follow.

Since the new ad targeting tools were launched in March this year, targeting users through Twitter Handles have been a great way to precisely target Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to specific audiences. Placing ads in front of people, with interests similar to followers of a specific account, have helped marketers find profiles of people with a tighter fit for conversion or followship potential.

But finding a larger list of appropriate accounts took time, often messing around with Twitter Search for new ideas. Now there’s a new way to supercharge this process, improve results and save time. At the end of last week, Twitter launched an expansion of the tool that helps extend your existing Twitter Handle shortlist by up 40 new accounts, by recommending relevant usernames.

How to use this tool:

The Twitter Handle generator can be used for Promoted Tweets and Accounts.

In your Twitter ads account, select either “Create a new campaign” or “Edit Campaign” to modify an existing campaign that is in use.

Choose “Interest and followers” as the primary method of targeting.

In the add Twitter Handles section, add in 5-10 Twitter Handles

Then click “Expand your reach” where a box will pop up with up to 40 new suggestions, based on your initial list.

Select the Twitter Handles you want to use and add them to your campaign.

Top Tip – use at least 8 Twitter Handles for the most relevant results. Adding only 1-3 will make recommendations very general.

Why this is cool for marketers

This Twitter Handle generator, similar to the keyword suggestion tool that launched a few weeks ago, uses the same matching philosophy to help you target the most appropriate audience, at a greater scale. Not only does this provide wider opportunities to reach relevant impressions for your campaigns, but it’s also a great tool for generic competitor research.

The Twitter countdown

Yesterday [Quartz] (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/net-us-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE98T01H20130930), suggested that Twitter Inc is likely to make it’s IPO filing public sometime this week. With an expected valuation of $15 Billion, the social platform certainly needs to find ways to prove to it’s advertisers that it can deliver innovative ways of targeting it’s 240 million users worldwide. On the other hand, those users aren’t going to be happy if they feel they’re being bombarded by ads.

This Twitter Handle generator tool builds on the longstanding Online marketing premise that users are going to be happier with more relevant, targeted ads. Based in this case on their interests or the interests of the people they follow. I think the trick is to be careful who you follow; no mercy for @justinbieber fans!